In Conversation with Sumit Ganguli, CEO, GAVS

June 17, 2016
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It was ironical that our call with Sumit Ganguli, which largely focused on Digital disruption, was truly disrupted due to an extremely rare power outage at Princeton, NJ, where Sumit resides. All of his appliances , computers and devices were shut down, and the call started with his alarm wailing in the background. It reminded us, how dependent we are on digital devices today. We were joined by GAVS’ Executive Leadership team comprising of Rao Haridasu, Head Solutions and Strategy; Balaji Uppili, Chief Delivery Officer; and, Chandra Mouleswaran S, Head Infrastructure Services.

GAVS Technologies (GAVS) is a global IT services company enabling enterprises in their digital transformation through focus on infrastructure solutions. GAVS’ Managed Services offerings aligned with strategic technology trends like Automation, Predictive Analytics, Real User Monitoring, DevOps, IT Service Management, Cloud Orchestration etc. is geared to provide clients with the Gartners’ Bi-Modal IT support.

GAVS has been cited by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in ITSM 2.0, 2016 for its product GAVEL. It is positioned as an ‘Aspirant’ in Everest Group PEAK Matrix TM for Healthcare Provider IT Services. GAVS was also rated as a prominent India-based Remote Infrastructure Management player & one of the key small players serving the mid-market & enterprise clients in North America by Gartner.

The company’s Philosophy:

The core of GAVS’ existence is about disruption. Because that is the only way to survive and thrive in today’s world. Succinctly captured by the CEO, it is about enabling digital transformation for its clients by focusing on Infrastructure solutions that includes Software Defined Data Centres, Hyper Converged Networking, Cloud transformation, DevOps and Analytics. GAVS has offices at Princeton, NJ, Chicago, IL, Denver, CO, in the US; near London in UK and has a significant presence in Middle East with offices at Muscat, Oman and Dubai, Abu Dhabi in UAE. GAVS is expanding its presence at Saudi Arabia and Qatar. GAVS has a development centre at Chennai in India.

Bimodal IT, Automation and Digital Transformation

GAVS has adopted Gartner’s Bi-Modal IT for some of its clients. According to the thesis, all IT implementation have two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery, one focused on stability and the other on agility. Mode 1, Samurai, is traditional and sequential, emphasizing safety and accuracy. Mode 2, Ninja is exploratory and nonlinear, emphasizing agility and speed.

One of the more reputed Infrastructure Managed Services implementation by GAVS is at one of the leading hospitals in New York. The hospital supports almost 1.2 million patients annually with over 1200 beds and 4800 desktops and is located in one of the more depressed neighbourhoods of NYC. The hospital was required to reduce their total spend by $ 70 Million to $ 80 Million. Instead of reducing their clinical spend, the COO looked at outsourcing their IT spend. GAVS was awarded the contract. GAVS was able to create a private cloud, virtualized the servers and was able to support a slew of Hospital applications. GAVS now entirely supports the IT Infrastructure and some Health Care applications for the hospital and has been able to reduce the spend by almost 31% annually.

At recent IT conferences, the CIO and the ex COO of this Hospital have announced that but for this Outsourcing initiative and the Cost Outs, the Hospital would have been forced to make some clinical cuts. In today’s political climate in the US, often “ Outsourcing is a pejorative term”, however this was one Outsourcing initiative that has directly impacted the quality of healthcare provided to depressed denizens of NYC. This was an “ Outsourcing with a Heart”. GAVS has a number of Health Care Clients in the US.

GAVS has for over 10 years supported the Infrastructure Managed services for a leading Window covering manufacturing company in the US, and for over 6 years have supported an Ultra Low Cost Airline’s service desk. The Airline was going through a bankruptcy and was having problems to recruit and retain IT leaders, and GAVS was able to support their after office hours and weekend help desk service. GAVS has also been among the first few companies to implement SAP on Microsoft Azure for a leading Consumer Goods company in India.

Building Competitiveness through Digital

We asked Sumit Ganguli as to, what Digital Transformation actually means to him and the company. He stated rather clearly that it was about genuinely using powerful innovative technologies to create a new space which did not exist earlier, a blue ocean strategy. He cited the examples of Uber, Amazon, Priceline, and others which use new technologies like Big Data, Analytics, API, GPS, Mobile, Sensors etc.. to create new business paradigms; or the on-line banking tools that have totally changed banking and trading habits of individuals. IBM’s Watson, Wipro’s Holmes, TCS’ Ignio are all disruptive technologies. GAVS themselves are promoting the Zero Incident Framework and Predictive Analytics for IT Service Management through GAVEL. Ganguli is of the firm belief that in less than 4 years from now, 60% of CIOs will have to transform themselves to become Chief Digital Officers.

Sumit Ganguli, has been an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers University teaching International Business. He elaborated that countries need to evolve to stay current with their Business competitiveness. China has evolved from just low cost manufacturing to Innovation, Science and Technology and so has Korea. Singapore is re-positioning itself as a Financial and Education Hub. Switzerland has continued to remain focused on Precision engineering like Watch making and Engineering tools instead of trying to manufacture computers. In the same way, India needs to be ready for the Digital Future, by developing expertise in Automation, Analytics, Mobile and true Innovation. The old model of “throwing bodies at all problems and expecting a regular reverse hockey stick growth model” has become passé.

GAVS is committed to building the Next Generation of Infrastructure Management, the Zero Incident Framework. Using Instrumentation, Real User Monitoring, Automation, Predictive Analytics, GAVS has created a disruptive Infrastructure Enterprise that can trend towards Zero defects. GAVS is also creating a Millennial friendly service desk that interfaces with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Whatsapp.

Cloud Adoption & Security

GAVS has developed a strong competency in the Cloud area, especially with Microsoft Azure and IBM Blue Mix. GAVS has implemented an SAP Application on Azure Cloud for a leading FMCG company. GAVS has also implemented applications for couple of Cloud First companies that are on Microsoft Azure. GAVS is in conversation with leading players to create a competency around IBM Blue Mix and Soft Layer.

GAVS also has an offering around Identity Access and Governance and a Security Solution.

Talent & Culture

GAVS is very strong on Culture and Ethics and it is Sumit Ganguli’s belief, that “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”. GAVS is working very closely with its team on Trust and Empathy. For a mid-size company, it is always a challenge to balance growth, new client acquisition, competency building with cost management and efficiency, but the bedrock of GAVS is it’s culture and values. GAVS believes that all of its initiatives are filtered through the its RITE values – Respect, Integrity, Trust and Empathy. It is GAVS’ belief that to be able to become a fountainhead of ideas, innovations and disruptions, it needs to foster a culture that promotes an egalitarian environment.

GAVS has also been promoting the concept of SWAT, they are obsessing on recruiting employees who are Smart, Hard Working, Articulate and Technologically Curious and this is important in all of the partners that they are recruiting, retaining and fostering.